Notifications Spoiled Me
I want that green bar under Medium’s logo
Sometimes I wonder how people maintain personal diaries. Do they also sometimes fight the urge of sharing their writing with someone?
As I write this article, I can’t help but think — what do I write so that I get featured, people can’t help agreeing with me, leaving awesome notes and pressing that recommend button. It would be great if they could just tweet about this article!
I know what you are thinking.
What an attention whore!
I agree. That I am. I want that green bar under Medium’s logo. I’m also sure that I’m not the only one. There are many like me who love this kind of attention. Many of us want the same praise, shares, likes, RTs and what not.
Lets shake hands. We’re all spoilt by notifications.
According to what Medium is intended to be, I must be writing my heart out without worrying about how people are going to react to it. Come on! It’s about sharing ideas and stories. It’s not about building your audience. Medium does an almost perfect job at that but still, almost.
However hard I try, I really can’t kill that social anxiety inside myself while preparing my next post. Instead of enjoying the process of writing, I’m anticipating the results and the figures. Sometimes, I find myself checking my Medium account to see if I’ve received any new notifications, to see if I’ve become a star overnight. This is not what notifications are meant for, I suppose. They are supposed to quickly inform me about any activity on any activity I’ve done previously.
But lately notifications have become nothing more than clutter. We need to concentrate in order to do a job at hand and the clutter around us, inhibits us from doing so. In order to work on your desk you might have to re-organise it. Humans have tendency to get rid of clutter, well, most of us. Whenever you see a (1) in one of your Facebook or Twitter tabs, you feel a sudden urge to remove that (1). As if we need to know what it is or something catastrophic may happen. These notifications direct your attention so fast that no matter how important a task you might be doing, the thing that tops your priority list at that moment is checking that notification out.
At medium, the task, I think I’m supposed to do is write. But then why is it that this primary action has become a way to something else that I crave?
Medium is a much newer platform I’m talking about. Facebook has a much larger hand in spoiling me. I’m realizing it on medium because maybe here notifications are harder to earn. You need to produce something readable, engaging, classy to get your readers to press that green button at the bottom. Here I’m not served with a “1” written in white on a red background every other minute. When I don’t get the same attention as these awesome writers here on medium, I look no different than a kid who can’t afford a shiny candy in a candy shop.
So what does the kid do now?
He’s going to collect every penny until he has enough to afford that shiny candy. I will try to remain loyal to Medium’s purpose. I’ll share my ideas, stories and whatever comes to mind for anyone out there who might want to read it. I’ll try that it doesn’t matter to me if my reader presses that green button at the bottom or not.
Whenever one of my articles will have a fair amount of recommendations or notes, I’ll know that the kid has collected enough pennies to buy that candy. I’ll know that I’ve been true to this beautiful platform and in turn it has helped me grow as a writer.
But hey, I still love that green bar under Medium’s logo.
